Want to get some sleep, you cant reread something 22 times. Doing okay in college was all about time management. Yeah, i maybe didnt spend as much time having fun. But i was able to get myself through because i was able to manage myself. Were you an athlete as well . I was not a good enough athlete to be an athlete in college. But thats a whole other story. I know the feeling. So after you graduate. You went back to your native area, cleveland, and you worked for u. S. Steel . I did. You werent a steelworker . That was a little joke in my career there. I worked for the Home Building Products Division of United States steel that sold aluminum siding, gutter coil and replacement windows. Were you good at that . I wasnt there long enough to find out. There was a story that you met somebody who asked you about options, you took a taxi ride with him and you got a job. So ill give you the fiveminute version of the story. So after my freshman year in college, i did the typical summer internship at the cleveland Brokerage Office at one of the major broke er deale. Spend the rest of the summer in any group you want. Of course i fell in love with the commodity guys, because they were yelling and screaming and throwing phones around. This was in the summer of 80. It was in those summers. For those of you who have any remembering of whats going on in the commodity market, this was during the Hunt Brothers and what they were doing in the gold and silver market. They had a big gold arbitrage desk in this office. I convinced my grandmother to give me money to open up a trading account. I learned to trade gold that summer, made a ton of money in those 30 days, tried to convince my father that i shouldnt go back to college. I lost that argument. I dont know how i lost that argument even to this day. I finished college in two years because i wanted to get back to the financial markets. The u. S. Steel was kind of a joke. So while i was doing the u. S. Steel issue, i took a friday off, came to new york to go to the floor of the commodities exchange, naively just thinking i would walk in and get a job, of course. Little did i know, there would be 17 layers of securities around the commodities exchange. Hung around theres trying to get a job. And literally in desperation, i could get on the floor, but couldnt get through the turnstile. I got to run to airport, ill call you from the airport. This is before cell phones. I always got to remind kids there were no cell phones back then. I jumped in the elevator with him and said i heard you were going to laguardia, can we share a taxi. And in that taxi ride, he happened to be one of the senior guys in one of the big Brokerage Firms on the floor. And that week, they started Trading Options on futures. He said, hey, do you know options, i said of course. I gave him all the lines, he said im the options trader, i have no idea what im doing, if you could stand behind me and help me trade, we would hire you. So i got home to cleveland that night. I went to the barnes noble, they still existed back then. I happened to buy the right book. I bought the options on strategic investment. The mcmillan book. I said i cant read this whole brook over the weekend, i picked two chant evers and memorized them. Went back for the interview next week, convinced them i knew about options and they hired me and i started the next week. Wow, great. So i guess two questions arise immediately, one did you give any of the profits of your gold arbitrage to your grandmother . I gave her the money back a week later. With the profits . No, forgot about that. But shes still alive today. So 105 has week. Wow, congratulations. Something good about that. I hope shes the man who hired you, what became of him . Hillary bergman. Hes still around. Hes still in business. If he called you up and lobbies you on the tax bill, would you listen . He doesnt have my cell phone number and dont give it to him. Okay. He probably could find you. That worked out. From there, you got a job in 1990. You joined goldman. Yes. Turned out you were a good trader. Worked your way up and worked out. Yeah. Its been a good run. Lets go back to the tax bill. You sure . You sure you dont want to talk about trading . Well, your great skill in trading, youre going to lose money. You have to get over and go on to the next thing. You cant get depressed. Exactly right. Did you have trades that just didnt work and how long did you stay with them . Most of your trades dont work. Really . Yeah. Wow. Okay. [ laughter ] i mean, thats the difference between good traders and bad traders i always say. Okay. I always said, 80 of your trades arent going to work. You have to realize the 20 that are really good and stick with them. Okay. So now you were a registered democrat. Is that right . I still am. All right. Still are. So did you actually know President Trump before you got this position . No. Never met him . Never met him. Thats not true. We met each other once at a yankees game. In George Steinbrenners box many, many, many years ago. He was a man who died with no estate tax. Thats what hes famous for. Okay. [ laughter ] so, you got somebody called you. Was it jared and said would you like to me my fatherinlaw . Did you realize it was a Job Interview or what did you think it was during the transition . Wasnt quite sure. It was portrayed as come in and talk to the president elect at the time about your views of the u. S. Economy and what you thinks going on. Okay. And so after the first time you met with him, did you think you were going to get a job offer . You werent sure . You really werent sure you wanted one . I had all of those emotions. I knew i was going to talk about the economy. In typical president elect trump style, the interview went literally 360 degrees. Went the gamut of all different topics all over the place. And i towards the end i think it turned into hey, what would you do in my Administration Even though thats not where i was when i walked in and i wasnt sure when i walked out what 100 of my thinking was but i was quite intrigued with the meeting. Your family, were they supportive of you going to washington and working for a nondemocrat or they didnt care . My family is supportive of me in whatever i want to do. More importantly theyre supportive of helping the country in any way we can help the country. Okay. So at one point the president said if i met you earlier i would have made you secretary of treasury. Do you remember that comment . I might have. I might not have. All right. So in any event, you joined. You got the job. When you got to washington, did you realize that the white house job, while its close to the president , you have a small office. You used to have a big office. You had a great view. Now you have no view. You got over that, right . Yeah. I agree. I did have a great office before. Great view, i know. When youre working in the white house, its easy to get people to come to see you. How do you find that working environment at the white house compared to lets say goldman . Easier . Harder . More pressure every day . Oh, from a pressure standpoint, its dramatically more pressure. I think when you realize that youre working for 300 plus million americans and trying to deliver to them the best ideas and the best results and the most efficient way possible, its pretty daunting. Look, i had shareholders and i had partners, but its different from partners and shareholders. When i had partners, youve done this, you can say i screwed up, im sorry, well do better tomorrow. When youve got citizens and youve got news watching you 24 hours a day, you cant mess up. Youve got to do it right. So you developed a very close relationship with the president. How many times a day in the early part of the administration were you going to see him . Can you just walk in anytime . Has it changed a bit . Now you cant walk in because the new chief of staff doesnt like that . Look, the president likes people coming in to communicate with him. He likes knowing whats going on. He loves the input. He loves opinions. He loves views. In the transition, in the beginning when we got here, we were spending enormous amount of time together with many other advisers he had in the oval office. Now the reality is weve got a pretty welldesigned game plan. Were in execution mode. Im in execution mode with the president and the secretary of treasury. Its getting a bill done. I had unbelievable access to the president. When i need him or want him, i can go in and see him. Thats not a problem. Hes not bashful about telling me his views. Hes not bashful . No. You develop a close relationship with him. After charlottesville, it wasnt as strong. What is your relationship with the president today . As strong as its ever been. You can talk to him anytime. I probably saw him five times today. Wow. At least. Im leaving here to go be with him. Okay. The new chairman of the fed is to be announced, i believe. You are one of the candidates. You really want that job or youre not sure . The president , sharply at 3 00 is going to make his decision known. Hes made a spectacular choice and im proud of what he is doing. No regrets if you are not the person getting the job . Im really supportive of the president s decision. Its a great decision. Okay. Many people who work in the white house, i did it myself, you know, they burn out after a while. So, how long do you think you would like to stay in the white house . If theres a tax bill, would you like to go . Two years, three years . David, the opportunity to execute the president s economic agenda and deliver for the American People is an extraordinary opportunity. Im going to do this as long as i can. When you cant, what would you like to do next . Private equity . Something important like that . Being your replacement, you filled that last week. Thats off the agenda. If you were available, we would have talked to you. Could have, would have, should have. There you go. Back to the tax bill far moment. Im not sure youre interested still. Could have, would have, should have. Back to the tax bill. On the tax bill, would you say that the average person will get a benefit, say the average family of four, the average individual will see a tax cut or that was our objective. We have spent an enormous amount of time working with the house and the senate to deliver the president s agenda. The house has done a very good job of doing that. You are changing the mortgage interest deduction. I think right now, up to 1 million. You have lowered it to 500,000, but its perspective. Is the Real Estate Industry going to support this bill or not . We hope everyone supports the bill. The reality of Home Ownership is that people buy homes when they feel good about the economy, they feel good about their job, they feel like they are going to be employed for a while and have wage growth. They dont buy homes because they deduct interest. The data, he would say maybe the data shows the mortgage deduction leads people to buy bigger houses than they should buy. Growing the economy is whats important. Charitable deduction, there was no discussion about that. You are leaving it alone. Correct. What about the deduction for child credit, child care . You are increasing family tax credit . Increasing child care credit as well as other family related credits. We are definitely taking the child care credit up. The house is proposing going from 1,000 to 1600 for 16 and under and dependent credit of 300 for yourself, your spouse and dependent children below 230,000 of income. What about the process of going through the house. Is there going to be trade offs where somebody says why not get rid of this deduction and ill give my support for that . Thats the house process. Thats exactly where we are. The ways and Means Committee will work on the bill for a couple weeks. They will deliver their bill. They may make trades in there. You know, chairman brady will chair that committee. Me might have changes to make himself, then the bill goes to the full floor of the house and they will ultimately decide what the bill should look like and vote it out. Thats the entire regular way of process. If it didnt pass this year, its not going to be that big of a disappointment. Next year, you could live with that, i assume. We can live with that. We have to do it for the economy. We prefer to get it done. I think its important that american workers, when they get their first paycheck in 2018, they have more disposable income. Thats good for the economy and workers. Under your budget that you proposed, you are likely to have 100 billion increase in the annual deficit from fy 18 over fy 17. Are you worried about the increasing deficit and how are you going to deal with that . We are worried about creating Economic Growth. You know as well as any of us, the times we have seen the budget deficit go down we have Economic Prosperity in this country. As long as we are growing the economy, we can pay down deficit. We can grow and bring in more revenue. Thats what we need to do. This year, you project growth this year, this fiscal year to be 2. 5 or 3 . We have two consecutive quarters over three, one included a hurricane, which knocked down growth significantly. We are tracking probably a run rate of over 3 right now. We are pretty excited about what we see going on in the real economy and talking to businesses and business leaders. All the data we are seeing is favorable right now. You know markets well because you were at goldman for a long time. Do you think the stock market is ahead of the economy or you are not worried about the high market rates . If we continue to execute on our plan and deregulate, we deliver real tax reform. We are going to continue to see real Economic Growth and u. S. Business continue to thrive. The market is pricing that in. In terms of deregulation, you are not going to support a change in glass see gal or try to reimpose that, is that correct . We have a bunch of changes we are going do in the Financial Services along with the house and the senate that they support to really get regulation on banks and Financial Services where they should be. Everyone agrees we have swung way too far and handicapped Community Banks and small banks and overburdened them. We have to get small and medium banks back in the lending business. We need to roll back some of that regulation. On the big, huge, multinational banks, we are comfortable. You would do it through regulation, not a change in legislation of doddfrank . Look, theres going to be regulatory changes. Theres going to be refinement of doddfrank, refinement of the volker rule. Theres changes to the rules to get them to the right place. The Biggest Surprise you found in washington was what . Its harder than you thought . Easier than you thought . The people are nicer than you thought, not at nice . What was the biggest change . Surprise, i should say. I dont know about change. Biggest surprise. Its hard. This is really hard. No one should underestimate how hard this is. What people from the outside dont understand is how hard people actually are working. Im working now like i worked when i was 20 years old. You are making the same salary. No, i was making more. Again, no one should feel sorry for me. You know, people are working 1820 hour days, trying to get things done, trying to get things moved. Peoples intentions are in the right place. Its hard. The natural momentum to do nothing is pretty entrenched. You have seen Business People come to the oval office all the time. Do they tell you in advance they are going to tell the president a, b and c then get there and dont say it . I have seen every playbook. They tell me a, b, c and do the opposite, i have seen them tell me nothing. I have seen every playbook. Somebody that wants to influence you about the tax bill as it goes through, modifications whar modifications, what is the best way to influence you about a change they might want . Give you a phone call. That wont get them very far. Thats what i was hoping. The greatest pleasure of the job you have now is what . The ability to serve. When you think of my life history and what i have gone through and the ability to be in a position to give back to my country is unbelievable for me. The biggest downside is the hours . No. No one died from working hard. But why take a chance . [ laughter ] so, um, if, after the tax bill is done and you want to stay part of the administration, is there any other job you would want . You dont want to be any other job . You are happy with this job . You are happy with this . I have such a unique job and platform, i really am pleased with where i am. I didnt quite understand the breath and magnitude of the job i was taking. A bunch of people i relied on told me thats a great job, you should take it. I wasnt quite sure it was the right job. Now that im in the job and see how far reaching the job really is, i cant, you know, im pleased with where i am. I have more things to do than i have time to do. No regrets . No regrets. Look, we have come to the allotted time. Tough go back to the white house for an announcement. I want to thank you for your time and insight. Thank you. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Everybody can eat. House republicans have unveiled their tax reform bill, hr1 tax cuts and job act. We are joined by aaron, a tax reporter for politico. This has been a priority of speaker ryan an ways and means chair, kevin brady. How did the bill come about . What is the process like . Its been a busy year on the committee and leadership. Officials from the white house, President Trump is involved in trying to drive this to a finish line. Its been a busy year on the tax front. To be honest, its been many years in the making. When President Trump was elected, i think the republican members of congress saw this as an opportunity to try to really drive things this year, 2017. We have a link to the bill on our congressional chronical. A couple highlights, reduces tax brackets from seven to four, the top staying at 39 pn. 6 . The corporate 35 to 20 . Limiting mortgage interest to loans of 500,000 or less. It caps state and local property Tax Deductions at 10,000, increasing the Child Tax Credit and no longer allows medical expense or property loss deductions. One of the issues that came up with week ago in the budget vote was the issue of the state and local Tax Deduction. Some 20 members of the new york and new jersey delegations voting against it because of their concerns over that. How was it resolved in the tax reform bill . What you see in the bill is a bit of an effort at compromise. State and local taxes include three taxes, income tax, sales tax and property tax. What they have done is strip away the deduction for income tax and the deduction for sales tax. They are leaving in place a deduction for property tax only, but up to a limit, up to 10,000. So, the state and local deduction as we know it would not be the same going forward. Tell us about the Corporate Tax rate. It drops from 35 to 20 . Is that a permanent drop . They are proposing a permanent change. Theres a lot of chatter for weeks or longer that that change could only last a certain period, maybe up to a decade or it may get phased in slowly, over a period of a couple years and get to the 20 . What we saw in the paper that rolled out is permanent 20 starting once the bill is signed for next year. They had that discussion up until the last minute, from what i understand. That was part of deliberations into last night on figuring out how they could pay for a 15 point reduction in the corporate rate. Thats why the other options were still on the table late in the game. Republicans efforts were not just to lower taxes, but also on simplification. I understand they are trying to reduce the individual form down to a postcard size return, is that correct . That is certainly the talking point and republican members who are involved in this effort walk around and like to show these sample postcards, simplification is a big motivator for them. They feel like the public and general individual taxpayers also business taxpayers would do greatly, benefit greatly, i should say, from spending a lot less time and effort in assembling what you owe at the end of the year. Is there anything in this house legislation for democrats to like and secondarily what is the second biggest obstacle in the house for republicans to get passage on this . Where are the stumbling blocks . I dont think democrats are coming out in much support, if at all at this point. There are some provisions that theoretically would attract, would appeal to the democrat side of the aisle. The higher Child Tax Credit is one of them. They have expanded family related tax credits. Theres a couple 300 credits that didnt exist before related to dependent care but those actually go, not the Child Tax Credit increase, but the additional credits they are putting on the table, they go away after five years. Theres a limited runway for those. So, those are interesting new developments. As far as stumbling blocks, its hard to find pay fors or offsets to cover the revenue changes that this bill contemplates. The senate has different ideas about that. I think in the next few weeks, well start to see maybe a little more clearly where some of those differences are. But, that sort of remains to be seen. As it is right now, the house republicans, they put the bill out today. Theres a small window to maybe affect some changes, chairman brady is going to be a busy person with a lot of people requesting some tweets here or there. Maybe some big changes people want to really small changes. When the committee begins consideration next monday, from that point forward, the amendment process is limited. Over the next couple days, if anything gets changed, that is the window of opportunity. They start deliberation next week. What is the time line or intended time line for passage in the house . Ultimate passage is week after next. Committee passage is on tap for next week. Whats called a mark up gets under way on monday and its scheduled to run, i believe through thursday. Maybe monday, tuesday, wednesday. Wednesday could go into the evening, im told, or later into the night and thursday, maybe part of the day and i think that week members are not scheduled to be in on friday, the veterans day recess or they have a day off for veterans day. The week they come back after veterans day is when this is expected to get to the house floor. Aaron lorenzo is the tax reporter. You can follow his reporting and covering of this bill and more at aaron e. Lorenzo on twitter. Thanks for the update. Thank you. Next, republican officials from alaska talk about opening up the arctic wildlife refuge to oil drilling. Democrats and environmental groups oppose the drilling. This is a portion of the energy and Natural Resource Committee Hearing chaired by alaska senator lisa murkowski. Good morning, everyone. The committee will come to order. We meet this morning to consider opening a very small portion of alaskas 1002 area to responsible Energy Development to meet the 1 billion budget reconciliation instruction that our Committee Received last week. The 1002 area covers 1. 57 million acres of land in northeast alaska within the nonwilderness portion. You can bring it over here sean. I think its important to put this in context in terms of the areas that we are talking about. Anwr itself is 19 million acres. This is approximately the size of south carolina. The nonwilderness area is 1002 area, is 1. 5 million acres, approximately the size of delaware. The area here is designated as wilderness, federal wilderness, 8 million acres there. When we are talking about anwr itself, its important to recognize there are parts of anwr that are designated as wilderness and parts within the refuge and parts of anwr, the 1002 area specifically designated for consideration for oil and gas exploration. So, again, i want to be clear, the 1002 area is not federal wilderness. Congress recognized the value of anwr when it designated the more than 7 million acres at the mali beat beatie wilderness here. That is an area that is protected and will not and cannot be touched. The coastal plain, again, is separate from the wilderness in anwr. Its the size of delaware, again, in a refuge the size of the state of south carolina. So, again, the areas we are talking about are significant. What alaskans are asking for is to develop just 2,000 federal acres within it, about 1 10,000 of anwr. Thank you. We should also understand that if we open the 1002 area, the economic benefits will be substantial. Our National Security will be strengthened and the environmental impacts are minimal. We will create thousands of new jobs with wages that support families and put children through college. Revenue for government, tens of billions of dollars over the life of the fields. Theres been some discussion out there as to weather or not we can meet our 1 billion instruction. The answer is a simple yes. I would remind the committee, the first ten years are the start. This is the smallest part of the 40 year period where responsible production raises billions of dollars of revenue every year. They estimated the federal treasury could, depending on oil prices and resources produced and we all put that in a caveat there, it could raise anywhere from 48. 3 billion on the low end to 296. 8 billion over 30 years. Bear in mind, that is new wealth and prosperity. New wealth. It will not be created or repurposed with so much of what we deal with. The revenues will reduce our debt simultaneously creating the growth conditions needed to reduce it on a greater scale. Opening the 1002 area will help keep energy affordable. Here in the lower 48, we have forgotten what it feels like to pay 4 for a gallon of gasoline. Prices are moderate, we realize that but they dont necessarily stay that way. We need to take steps to plan for the long term and we need to do that now, not in ten years, to keep Energy Prices affordable. A number of experts are pointing to the warning signs. You have the International Energy agency that found that, quote, Global Oil Supply could struggle to keep pace with demand after 2020 risking a price unless projects are approved soon. Now, some are going to argue that we are doing just fine. We are producing more, exporting some, so we can turn our attention to other matters. I think thats a mistake. We are projected to remain a significant net importer well into the future and setting aside the shorter term concerns i have mentioned, even the more cautious forecast from Energy Information is energy will be back to 100 a barrel by 2040. I think its misleading to suggest that all the benefits of opening the 1002 area will happen all at once and all in the near term. We know thats not true. We will see the benefit for decades, not just over the tenyear budget window. We talk a lot about where we were back in 1995 when congress had passed anwr and president clinton, at that time, vetoed the effort to open the 1002 area. 1995. Think about where we would have been had that action not taken place. We wouldnt have seen as dramatic run up oil prices in the mid2000s. States like california would not be importing so much oil from abroad. Thats exactly what has happened as supply from alaska has declined. There is no question that opening the 1002 area is important for our state and National Economy and we can be just as confident that the new technologies that are in place and stale coming online will ensure that responsible development does not harm the environment. Between the 1970s and today, the surface footprint of Arctic Development decreased by 80 . Several of our witnesses this morning will speak directly to that. Put it in context. What was once a 65 acre pad now takes about 12 acres or less. Then, below ground, the extended reach drilling from a single pad will grow to an area of 125 square miles by 2020. Just in a few years here. Again, well have mr. Shut speak to that. Thats an increase of 4,000 since we began Oil Production in the 1970s. Development in the arctic always raised concerns about wildlife and the environment and appropriately so. I would remind everyone here this morning, because alaskans have been so careful with development, fears of impact to our wildlife and land have repeatedly proven wrong. Most of our roads are now built from ice and melt in the summertime, leaving no impact on the tundra. Developers follow thousands of regulatory requirements, best practices and mitigation measures. We inventory and assess wildlife and habitat to avoid sensitive places. We talk about the caribou. The central arctic caribou herd, which lives year round in and around the bay, increased from 3,000 animals in 1969, prior to development to 5,000 when Development Began in earnest in 1974 and was at about 22,000 animals just this last year. Its now more than seven times larger than when Development Began. It also may surprise some to learn we are developing energy just outside anwr at Point Thompson,a point my colleague knows very, very well. This is located on state land jst two miles from the border of the 1002 area. That project at Point Thompson is being carried out responsibly and not harming the wildlife that crossed the invisible western boundary, again, defieing the claims we hear about possible harm. For over 40 years now, alaskans have repeatedly proven we can develop stafely and responsibly. We will not harm the caribou or polar bears whose den can be protected. The snow geese whose nesting areas can be safeguarded or other wildlife that visit. We are sensitive to the habitat in the region and care for it. Alaskans understand this. This is why more than 70 of us have supported opening the 1002 area to responsible development. We areless acutely aware that our state needs this and well hear this from our governor. Right now, we have the highest Unemployment Rate in the country. We have massive budget deficits projected to last quite a while. The transatlantic pipeline system, the economic backbone of the state is one quarter full. We know, we know full well that opening the 1002 area is not an immediate cure. We also know that its something that we have to do today because the benefits of development will take time to fully realize. Its like the old saying, we say a lot around here, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. We need to take that first step today so that we can realize the benefits going forward. I was born in alaska. My husband and i have raised our boys there. I hope that they lead long and healthy lives in a place that is so beautiful and so gorgeous that it sometimes takes your breath away. What i know is that no one cares more for alaska as those of us who live and work and raise our families there. We love our state. We respect the land. We would never risk its future for the sake of development. But, we also realize that is not the case here. The 1002 area was created by a congressional compromise. We always knew its future would require another one. Today, alaskans are offering just that. We are not asking to develop all of the 1002 area, but instead, we are asking 2000 acres for about 1 10,000 of the refuge. We have waited nearly 40 years for the right technologies to come along so the footprint of development is small enough to ensure that the environment continues to be respected and will not be harmed. This is not a choice between energy and the environment. We are past that. What we have today is a great lineup of witnesses to help our committee understand that. We have our entire alaska delegation with us, our governor, our congressman, our senator, we have our Lieutenant Governor, a number of alaska that live on the north slope. I thank all our witnesses for being here. I look forward to an excellent and informative hearing. Senator, i turn to you and welcome your remarks. Thank you, madam chair. I welcome the governor and colleagues to todays discussion. I should start this by saying this hearing is a great departure from the strong working relationship that senator myrurkowski and i have t to work on an Energy Agenda to move forward. Its too bad we are not using our resources to force the house colleagues to reconsider the important bill that included over 100 priorities to move our country forward on everything from Cyber Security to energy efficiency. I also dont support the make up of todays panels. Two colleagues who do not support opening the wildlife ref zhuszh who carried this bill, senators marquee and bennet were not allowed to be part of the panel. I believe we should have had more witnesses from Indian Country that represent not just the alaska native claim settlement act and corporations and yes, corporations are charged with economic development, but individual tribal members throughout alaska and the United States of america dont support this kind of development because they believe in the wildlife nature that god has given us and we are stewards for mother earth. I thank them for that. I thank them for their Strong Spiritual beliefs. Thank you. We are here today because someone came up with a ludicrous idea we can pass a tax reform bill that raises the deficit, increases taxes and that will take a sliver out of a wildlife refuge to do it. I want to call this caribou for millionaires. It is the most ridiculous idea i have heard as it relates to meeting the tax reform agenda. No, i dont like the set up of these three panels. Im always glad to hear from the governor and always glad to hear from our colleagues, but our other colleagues should have had their voices heard and Indian Country better represented. When will we see the language . When will we have any idea about this process . So, i am disturbed. I could go in a direction of saying that we dont have to worry because some of the press reports are that from Bloomberg News and others that, quote, the coastal Arctic Refuge does not have rock formation and there is no great interest in developing the arctic wildlife refuge and there are safer bets. One could have the attitude there are, particularly with the trump administrations desire. Im not sure where in the United States of america they dont want to drill, but with their 1. 7 billion acres they want on the outer Continental Shelf and many other places in america, i find it hard to believe there will be the economic incentive to drill in the arctic wildlife refuge. Why put a big x on top of something that is so unique to the United States of america . When i recently researched why we got to this point and heard some of the first people that made their case to the Eisenhower Administration quoting from the reports, quote, we knew it must be preserved as an original fragment of the past. The last opportunity to protect part of this continent as it once was, end quote. Why . Because, as other people said, quote, it was a spiritual place, an arctic wildlife refuge. The fact that, quote, they also said it was an area that was left undisturbed by man. It was the last laboratory in which plants, animals and where they live, as they have always lived, is preserved, end quote. So, this is why we got to this point. This is whats unique about it. This is why, from the Eisenhower Administration to today, we have fought to protect it. Now, is alaskas economy of great concern to us as a nation . Yes. Do we, in the pacific northwest, i think one of the first things i said to the chairwoman is lets talk about why the natural gas pipeline in alaska hasnt been built, because it has a bigger impact than this. There are issues in which we need to be mindful about the Energy Economy moving forward. But this idea is not new and its not better. Theres nothing thats xhanged here. Theres no new science that says we dont have to worry about this wildlife and there is no new science that says the Oil Development will take up a smaller footprint. This map that we will get to everyone basically shows that the development will take up a significant portion of the refuge. The 800 mile long transalaska pipeline, 219 miles of Power Transmission lines and so on and so forth. So, the notion that wildlife can exist in this unique environment in the same way with this development is just wrong. I look forward to hearing from secretary perry on this because i sent him a letter yesterday, asking him how they can exist together. Well look forward to seeing how he answers that. I also point out the uniqueness of this area has entered into an international agreement. The caribou population is so unique, so specific and so special that we have entered into an agreement with canada on it. Thats because they want to protect this population of caribou as well. So, the notion that we should move forward on a wrong headed idea because all of a sudden people want revenue for a tax bill, and move forward today on something we dont know what we are moving forward on and language is just not the way i think we should be proceeding. I hope that we will have a chance, our colleagues to ask witnesses questions about this, but be assured, even though we dont agree with the process or the process of trying to get 51 votes to change the arctic wildlife refuge, we are never stopping. We are never stopping and trying to protect the arctic wildlife refuge and the uniqueness and working with the people who also support that idea. Thank you. Thank you, senator cantwell. We have several panels this morning. I appreciate not only our delegation being here, but all the alaskans and the visitors that have joined us this morning. Very distinguished panel, we will be led off by our colleague here, senator sullivan. He will be followed by the congressman for all alaska, congressman young, who has represented us in the house of representatives for 45 years . 45 years, going on 46. And the panel will be rounded out by our governor, Governor Walker has been in office now for three years, is a lifelong resident and has great leadership and i appreciate you being here as well governor. Im an independent senator. That is true. He is an independent. We dont talk about political affiliations here of anybody. That is noted for the record. Senator sullivan, if you would like to lead off with the welcome, please. Thank you for the opportunity to say a few words on this very important issue for the country. Many in this room are protectors of alaskas environment. With all due respect, there are three people in congress who care more about alaskas environment than anyone else in the entire body. Senator murkowski, congressman young and myself. The fundamental disconnect and discussion of the 1002 area is the debate has not kept up with alaskas high standards, the highest in the world, and ill talk about that, and advancement in technology. With all due respect to the Ranking Member, a lot has changed. A lot changed. Responsibly developing the 1002 area is a win, win, win for the country. It will create jobs and grow the economy, increase Energy Security for americans and very importantly, it will help protect the Global Environment and strengthen our National Security. The last two points i would like to emphasize in my remarks this morning. M madam chair, alaska has the highest standards for Arctic Development than any place in the world. I was in charge as alaskas commissioner of the department of Natural Resources. Its no impact exploration or specific requirements related to our incredible species like the polar bear or caribou, mandating the best technology. We have a 50 year record of responsible Resource Development in our state. Let me give you one example. No impact exploration. As the chair noted, on the north slope, we only allow for exploration during the winter months, they have required to build ice roads. You can see examples in some of the slides i provided. They have to leave before the winter ends. The ice pads and roads melt and have zero impact. The only thing left is a small capped well. Thats one example of alaskas very high mandated standards. As the chair pointed out, we use these standards very recently in the past four years on the coastal plain in the same ecosystem of the 1002 area being debated now with the development of the Point Thompson project. Theres a slide. See how close it is to the 1002 area. There was minimal impact on the environment. The footprint, as you can see from the slides is very, very small and producing energy right now. Madam chair, here is the issue those in congress who want to shut down Resource Development in alaska never acknowledge. When you disallow investment in alaska, the place with the highest standards on the environment in the world, you dont end up protecting the Global Environment. What you do is end up driving capital and investment to jurisdictions with much less Environmental Standards or no standards. Countries like nigeria, venezuela and iran and russia, many of which are geo political foes. This brings me to the second point. Producing more energy responsibly, oil, natural gas, renewables. Making the United States a world superpower. It will dramatically strengthen the National Security. Some of you know i served in the marine corps 24 years and served as u. S. Assistant secretary of state. I have seen how energy can be used as a tool for good, productive diplomacy, but also for troublesome power grabs by the nations foes. We dont have to import energy. When we dont have to import energy from countries that dont like us or better yet, when we can export American Energy to our allies like japan or korea or even countries like china, this helps National Security. I sit on the Armed Services committee. We have heard from military and civilian leaders from the country, democrats and republicans from secretary ash carter to secretary mattis, consistently stated that producing more energy strengthens the National Security. I know my friend senator king heard the comments consistently on the Armed Services committee as well. Its not just the americans who recognize this. The russians do as well. A recent New York Times article from october 29 titled russia uses its oil giant as a Foreign Policy tool. Well include that as part of the record. They are wielding oil as a geo Political Tool spreading interest and challenging the United States. Let me end with an anecdote of a meeting in last year at the halifax National Security forum with senator mccain. We were meeting with a senior level russian and we asked him at the end of the meeting, what many can we do as a country to push back against the putin regime. He looked at us and said, the number one thing you can do, the number one thing you can do is produce more American Energy. Opening the 1002 area using the highest Environmental Standards in the world and the most advanced technology will produce more American Energy for the betterment of our country. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, senator sullivan. Congressman young, you have been through a few anwr debates. We welcome your comments this morning. Are you sure of that . Madam chair, thank you for having this hearing and Ranking Member cantwell and the rest of the members of the senate. I dont feel comfortable on the senate side. I need a flashlight most of the time because sometimes its pretty dark over here. I am one of the few people, theres one left in the congress that went through this battle 45 years ago, actually 42 years ago. This 1002 area, the history of it was created by senator jackson and senator stephens when the senators were really knowledgeable about what goes on. We recognize this area at that time about the value of oil and why we have the 1002 area. As you mentioned, anwr is about 19 million acres of land. 1002 footprint will probably be, i cant say what size it is, but i represent alaska. You see anything different on my nose right now . This is i am alaska. One tengt of one tengt percent. We are talking disturbance. The map was drawn up by the sierra club. That bothers me. Thats old information. This little dot on my nose, i weigh 225 pounds, this little dot is what we are talking about, the 1002 area. Its the potential of probably around, early estimates 10 billion barrels, problem 20 billion barrels of oil. Senator sullivan brought it up, this is an issue of National Security, National Security. It is the one weapon russians willing, we can have the security for the nation as a whole. I was interested to hear about the caribou. You are going to hear a lot of nonsense stories later on in the day. I am interested in canada, the ambassador sent out a letter about opposing anwr. Did we say anything when they drilled 270 wells right in the area for the caribou . 270 wells were drilled in this caribou area, where they cross every year. They built a 400mile road across the area, too. Did we say anything then . This is not about, its not ability the environment or the caribou, its about economics. Im ashamed of canada right now. Is there an emotional issue they dont know about, been there or seen it nor understand the caribou herd. Thats one thing that bothers me the most about the legislative process. What used to be, as i mentioned, the senators worked together when states were effected. We didnt get involved in the shipyards of certain members districts how they mismanufactured a ship. We didnt do that. We had people going and saying this is a great environmental area. Maybe ill find out how many of you have gone up to the senate side. Lets think about National Security. I can run every two years, im not one of you guys, every six years. I supported this and fought for it 13 times. 13 times i have moved without a house on the senate side but once. President clinton vetoed it because he said it wouldnt relieve the environment we had that quickly. Think about that a moment. If we are to be energy sufficient, to control the International Instances that can be faced, we need anwr. The congress recognized it when we passed it. John cyberman agreed to this prodecision because they knew the value of that oil and the value to this nation. Now, we are fighting the same battle again because of the ignorance and misinformation from those of us that dont have Resource Development at all not only in alaska, we are easy to pick on because of the three person delegation, but make us less strong. To make us a second rate nation. Thats what a lot of you wish to do. As a house member, im going to pass this again. I hope you have the courage to do what is right for this nation, what is good for alaska, what is good for the nation and good for all the people in the future. Madam chairman, i thank you for having this hearing. I will remember and remind you, look at that little blue dot on my nose. That is the 1002 area. I dont think it changed my appearance very much because the coastal plain is not that area you see by all the environmental groups. Its a flat terrain that, in fact, was set aside by this congress and the senators for the development, not the preservation. I yield. Thank you, congressman. Thank you for being here. Governor walker, welcome. Good morning, chairman murkowski, Ranking Member cantwell, thank you for the opportunity to speak. I am governor of alaska. I am nonpartisan. I have a goal as governor that future generations will be able to have the same benefits growing up in alaska that i had growing up in alaska. The territory, the Lieutenant Governor grew up in alaska. We see many changes for good. Alaska is different. Resource development is in our dna. We did it long before statehood and continue to do it. Its 70 of our income. We have done it for a long time. We do it right. We are careful and individual lent of the environment. I remember when we became a state. We celebrated. The deal was a compact that said alaska, we cannot sell the resources in the ground. We have to live off it. We have to live off the royalties of it. Thats how we fund our state. That was the deal then. We accepted that. We didnt realize we may not have access to resources to develop to live off those resources. That was the deal. All im asking for is to get the deal we made in 1969. The great compromise was made under was the 1002 was set aside for future development. Thats what the deal was. We are asking for the benefit of the deal made long ago. This has become something i have lived with as an alaska president all my life. Now, im dealing with it as governor of alaska in many ways, which ill get to. The oil pipeline, the only thing wrong with the it is its three quarters empty, sitting next to, miles away, from the most prolific area of hydrocarbons you can imagine. 10 billion barrels. You know, this is not about money. This is not about who gets what money in alaska chlgt this is about our future. This is about an economy and the young people who want a decent education. I want to thank the Committee Members that came to a field hearing in bethel and went on to a location in oscarville. You saw part of alaska that many have not seen. Im a believer in seeing firsthand what alaska looks like. You know, we are a vast state, as we all know. We own, as the state of alaska, 242 airports. The reason we do that is 80 of our communities do not have roads. Talking about infrastructure, we dont have enough to upgrade. You know, i sat in a listening circle a few years back. One of the elders said to me, i was not governor, he said mr. Walker, my goal as a grandfather is to see one of my grandchildren flush a toilet in their village. The infrastructure needs to be paid for out of the resources. That was the deal we made with congress when we became a state. We need the benefits of the bargain. We need it now. As i came into office, 1. 6 billion deficit that grew to 3. 7 billion deficit. I have had to do things i hope no future governor has to do. We made difficult decisions. I said no to help for funding. We closed facilities and laid off thousands of people. We have reduced our budget by 1. 7 billion. Its tough to do. That hurts. Public safety, alaskans dont feel safe right now. We are having a special session as we speak to bring that safety back. You know, i signed recently, a third of this week, a Climate Change administrative order. We have a Climate Change team. Eaed with dress that in alaska. We looked at Climate Change. Its impacted alaska. We relocated 12 villages. I have been to smaller. But we cannot do it without the financial resources. I dont see it coming from washington to relocate 12 villages so we need to look at how can we bring in the revenue. The only way is off our resources. Alaska is unique that the beauty above ground is unparallel. The beauty below the ground is unparallel and our resources and we need to develop responsibly. As a governor, i can tell you that the support in the Alaska Legislature is 90 in support of this. Please, please, let us develop our resources responsibly to fund our state and make alaska fuel safe and fund our health care and they are the highest in the nation by multiples. Please let us have the benefit of the bargain that we made in 1959 with this body. Thank you for your time today. Governor, senator congressman thank you for not only your testimony here this morning putting into perspective from a historical perspective, from a defense pe spective, from a resource perspective, it has great value to the conversation and we certainly appreciate it. I know congressman, it is a long way over to the house side. So we will let you get back as we move to our second panel. But i want to thank each of you. Could i thank you, madam chair, but im gad to see so many of my colleagues on this side all serving with me. It is not so bad on this side. Everybody but Abraham Lincoln served. Could i ask the governor a quick question. We are not prepared to do a question. If it is quick. I think we dont get a chance to talk to him that often and i would appreciate a chance that we do. Part of this idea is traveling with a package of legislation moving through the house that gets rid of the local sales deductions and washington and lask alaska are unique in that we dont have income tax and we deduct, are you supportive of your that concept and they would pack this with blocking medicaid. Are you supportive of those concepts as part of the package to get anwr opened up. Senator cantwell, i have looked at the package and i willee i will evalute ate the package and i have been getting ready for the hearing today. We look at us as a part of the solution on the deaf significance. Revenue from alaska because the royalties will be shared equally between the federal government and the state of alaska and if there is innocent terest in red the budget. Well get you information but our an analysis is alaskans will pay 1,100 to 1,400 tax increase and individuals 900 on that sales Tax Deduction so i think it is i bad idea for our state and your state and i hope no one around here takes the bait to open up anwr. But thank you. Well do all we can to open up anwr. Senator cassidy. Health care reform is not part of this. Block granting medicaid is not part of this. It could be a Disinformation Campaign put out there to obscure the truth. Well come back to health care reform. But that should not be speaking of here as if it is jermaine to the argument. That is misleading to the American People. I i went do somewhat limited jurisdiction here in the energy committee. Our instruction is to find 1 billion and as we mentioned, repeatedly, that we have that opportunity within the 1002 area of alaska. Governor and senator and congressman, thank you for being here this morning. Lets call up the second panel, please. And as you are getting seated, i will provide brief introductions. Weve heard from our governor, Governor Walker, his Lieutenant Governor, and partner is our Lieutenant Governor byron millot, Lieutenant Governor is a leader of great renowned in our state, an alaska leader hailing from yakutat and has had nun opportunity to appear before the Comm Committee on numerous occasions and followed by greg sheehan. Greg is the Principle Deputy direct your for fish and wildlife at department of interior. It is good to have you before the committee. Mr. Samuel alexander has joined us and we welcome him as a tribal member from the gwichin government and thank you for traveling such a Long Distance and mr. Matthew rex ford, the tribal administrator at in the native village of catovic, the one community, the one village within the 1002 area. It is good to have you here. So Lieutenant Governor if you would like to lead off this morning. Weve asked you to try to limit your comments to about five minutes. Your full statement will be inkrorpti in incorporated as part of the record and at the conclusion of your testimony well have the opportunity to ask questions of each of you. So governor thank you for traveling and being before the committee. Welcome. Thank you, madam chairman and Ranking Member cantwell and members of the committee, the statement of Governor Walker in the record details the reasons clearly that alaska the state of alaska supports the issue before the committee. That the need for development is clear. That the need for the revenue is clear. That the availability of revenue should develop and take place, will be real. I want the focus my remarks briefly on the history of as also has been spoken to of the anwr issue. I was here as a young staffer during the development in the senate as a young staffer during the development of the alaska native claim settlement act and milka and ultimately the federal classifications in alaska, flowed from anksa in section d2 of that act. There were bargains made that were made very clear to alaska, which from time to time i had the opportunity to help develop and which in practice i saw go away in my home village of yakka tack, i saw preserve areas created in the st. Alias National Park in which we were promised as native residents, as native subsistence users, as folks who lived in that area for centuries were promised that we could use that area into the future, they were carved out for that purpose and i saw camps that my family owned and others in our community used for generations burned down by the National Park service, regardless of what had been promised to us by this congress. I see in anwr the 1002 area being an area in which the congress made a promise to alaska and to our country that we would develop those resources should they be able to be done safely, should they meet the market tests, should they be able to be brought to market. We see a complete infrastructure on the north slope of our state with a pipeline to market as the governor said, that is now only 25 of capacity. We see Point Thompson literally on the border of the 1002 area with the infrastructure to allow the minimal impact in the 1002 area for exploration and Even Development made possible without any further Significant Impact on the environment
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